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(Alliance News) - LondonMetric Property PLC on Tuesday completed the sale of two assets for GBP28.2 million, reflecting a blended net initial yield of 4.6%.
The London-based property investor sold a 61,000 square feet retail park in Tonbridge, Kent, for GBP22.0 million reflecting a net initial yield of 5.3%. NIY is net operating income divided by the gross investment cost, including acquisition costs.
The property was acquired for GBP11.5 million in 2013. During ownership, the rent has risen by 44% to GBP1.2 million per annum.
The asset is fully let to a range of companies including Marks & Spencer Group PLC, Halfords Group PLC, and Costa Coffee, with a WAULT of 11 years.
WAULT is the weighted average unexpired lease term. It is used by property companies as an indicator of the average remaining life of the leases within their portfolios.
The second property, sold by LondonMetric for GBP6.2 million, is a 30,000 square feet urban warehouse in Birmingham.
The asset is let at a hold over rent of GBP158,000 per annum and was acquired by LondonMetric in 2019 as part of the Mucklow acquisition.
Hold over rent is when a tenant stays in their space after their lease expiration date.
LondonMetric did not specify who the assets had been sold to.
The sales are 1% below LondonMetric's March 31 book value and crystallise an ungeared internal rate of return of 14%.
Proceeds will be used in the short term to pay down some of the company's revolving credit facility.
Chief Executive Officer Andrew Jones said: "These are strong, opportunistic sales and demonstrate that, despite macro challenges, there is still liquidity for very well located assets. At Tonbridge, the completion of our accretive asset management initiatives have delivered a high quality grocery-led asset that is let on long leases to an excellent line up of retailers."
Shares in LondonMetric were trading 3.5% higher at 193.50 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.
By Chris Dorrell; chrisdorrell@alliancenews.com
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